


Nudge

by mathelode (engmaresh)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Force-Sensitive Finn (Star Wars), Jedi Finn (Star Wars), Jedi Rey (Star Wars), Lightsabers, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Quests
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 07:41:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26349511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/engmaresh/pseuds/mathelode
Summary: While travelling with Rey to Utapau to find a kyber crystal for his lightsaber, the Force leads Finn towards a new friend.
Relationships: Finn/Rey (Star Wars)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24
Collections: We Die Like Fen 4: We Lived to Die Afen





	Nudge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shadaras](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadaras/gifts).



“Over there!” yells Finn, peering through the viewport. The landing pad is small and unobstructive, blending into the stone facade of the giant pit they’re descending into.

“I know, I can see it, Finn!” Rey shouts back. Yeah, he knows she can, and besides, the Falcon’s got the station's coordinates and the navcomputer with its new modifications can guide them down easy enough, but Finn likes to use his eyes. After a childhood of VR goggles strapped to his head, feeding him propaganda; the HUD of a stormtrooper helmet putting the galaxy through its red-tinted filter--he prefers to see his world unobstructed, no lenses, no filters, no screens. And he can sense it now too, vaguely. Not the structure itself, but the lifeforms moving about, deeper within the hanger bay, bright shining pinpricks of energy in the Force.

One of them calls to him particularly loudly.

As they draw closer he’s pretty sure they’re not going to fit--the platform’s tiny and the _Falcon_ not only a small ship, but also as old as Imperial balls. No matter what modifications Rey has made, its docking clamps aren’t going to hold it vertically against the sheer rock face.

Rey flips a switch, hailing the port's managers. Finn feels more than sees the ground below shiver, then rather belatedly, the hanger extends, until there’s finally enough room for the _Falcon_ to land. The manager isn’t very happy when Rey and Finn emerge--looks like there’s a storm coming, which is why they’ve closed down the hangers. Apparently they’ve cut their timing pretty close. He leaves Rey to haggle on the docking fee--she always haggles, no matter what she’s paying for, and it stopped being funny after that time she got the _Falcon_ impounded and landed them both briefly in jail.

That energy still calls out to him, much closer now and very much alive, so with a brief nudge through the Force to Rey, just to inform her of his intentions, Finn goes to seek it out. It takes him deeper into the hanger, and, much to his disgust, closer to the nauseating reptile-den smell that has already been faintly present out on the landing bay. He wrinkles his nose, and hopes this new ally the Force is leading him to is a little less pungent.

He follows the smell down a wide tunnel carved in sandstone, and takes a turn that brings him to a circular arena-like area, ringed by a balcony and joined to a flat lower level by a broad, corrugated ramp. There, milling around in the sand, occasionally snapping or honking softly, are a dozen or so creatures that look like the result of a Tatooine dewback going on a crash diet and mating with an Ajan Kloss raptor. Maybe a little less ugly than the mental image that immediately comes to Finn's mind. Essentially, giant lizards with feathers. Judging from the way one of them is being saddled up, possibly the main mode of transportation in this area. Those huge claw-tipped talons would explain the strange gouges he’d seen on the tunnel ceiling on the way here.

Finn descends the ramp, hoping he’s not going to have to haggle to rent one of the creatures--unlike Rey, he’s not good at it at all. The First Order had discouraged any financial independence, not that the currency they paid their meager stipends in could have been used anywhere off their fleet. He reasons to himself that renting an animal for a few hours could hardly cost him the two thousand credits he currently has on his person.

To his relief, the Utai he talks to points to a sign--set up for tourists, Finn assumes--so he just has to pay the set amount, and then he’s handed a saddle and let loose among the dragonmounts.

“Uh…” he begins, turning to the Utai. “I just...pick one and go?”

The Utai waggles his head at him, which he takes as a yes. 

“Right,” Finn mutters. “Okay. Okay.” He can do this. Animals like him, the ones that aren’t trying to eat him anyway. He’d learned to ride an orbak in record time, impressing even Jannah, who he’s learned isn’t a woman easily impressed. He’s ridden an Orbak _on a Star Destroyer_ \--a tamed dragonmount should be a piece of cake.

He feels it again then, that nudge at the back of his head, strong enough it feels like something has brushed his shoulder. Finn turns, just as the doors to some stables burst open, and another wrangler leads out a mount. It honks as it passes, giant yellow eyes swivelling to track Finn and he knows immediately that this is who’s been calling to him.

“Hey!” he calls out to the wrangler, waving his rental chit. “Uh, um, I just paid for a rental, for uh...her?” She feels like a “her” in his head, sort of. However a dragonmount female feels. “Can I have her?” He taps on the rental chit again for good measure. 

The Utai wrangler mutters something that doesn’t quite sound charitable, but he nods, and even helps Finn buckle the saddle onto his mount, then hands him an armful of greens he’s supposed to feed her with before he goes. Or maybe it’s a snack for the trip? Whenever it’s meant for, his new friend doesn’t care--she sinks her giant beak into his arms and pulls out a mouthful.

“Right,” says Finn. He risks a tentative pat along her beak the second time she dives in for food. “Good girl.” He pauses. “You are a girl, yeah?”

If she isn’t, she chooses not to tell him, so girl it is, until she decides otherwise. The wrangler hasn’t given him a name either, so he’s going to call her Nudge.

“You have to tell me if you don’t like it,” he says, now daring to scratch her along her feathery crest. “I’ll come up with something else.”

Nudge nudges him. She seems to be okay with it.

When she’s done eating, he manages to swing himself into the saddle without sliding off it on the other side. It takes him a moment to figure out how to guide Nudge--riding a giant lizard, it turns out, is not quite like riding a hoofed steer. But Nudge is patient, and he finds that she takes direction through the Force a little better than from his unskilled hands, so together they make it work, though he does end up accidentally riding her up and over the wall of the arena instead of using the ramp.

They quickly leave the annoyed shouts of the Utai wranglers behind them. Finn steers Nudge back to the direction of the hanger, only to have to rein her in when he spots Rey jogging up to them.

“So that’s where you’ve disappeared to,” she says, breaking out into a smile. “And who’s your new friend here?”

“Meet Nudge. Nudge, this is Rey.”

Rey gently lowers her hand to Nudge’s beak, and in the Force he feels the brief spark of their connection.

“So I managed to get a map,” Rey says, as she swings herself up on the saddle behind him. “And sorry I was late, the retired port master suddenly appeared and wanted to talk to me about Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

“ _The_ Obi-Wan Kenobi?”

“You know any other Kenobis? Anyway,” she adds, “I got some directions too, though I’m not sure how useful they are. He just said ‘down, down all the way’.”

“Well,” says Finn. “We _are_ looking for a kyber cave. You don’t just find those anywhere close to the surface.”

Rey wraps her arms around his waist and hooks her chin over his shoulder. “Well, lead the way then, tamer of wild beasts.” Nudge honks, objecting to being called wild. Rey laughs and gives her an apologetic pat before pressing her lips to Finn's cheek. “C’mon, what are you waiting for? Nudge seems to know where to go, and I think you know too. Let’s get you your kyber crystal.”


End file.
